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Edge
Edge and Christian (E&C) is a former tag team of on-screen brothers made of real life best friends Edge (Adam Copeland) and Christian (William Reso, who normally uses his middle name of Jason), who wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation and the Canadian independent circuit. They won the WWF Tag Team Championship on seven occasions. History Formerly known as "High Impact" and later "The Suicide Blondes" while on the independent circuit, in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) the team was billed as "Edge and Christian" and re-imagined as brothers instead of just close friends. The duo held titles in numerous wrestling promotions before signing with the WWF. The words "Edge" and "Christian" are often associated with one another through their use in Christianity. Any part that may have actually played (outside of coincidence) in the origins of the two ring names still has not come to light, however. Adam "Edge" Copeland stated the following in an interview with Silvervision.co.uk when he was asked about any plans for a tag team name before they had settled with Edge and Christian: Independent circuit (1998) Sexton Hardcastle and Christian Cage formed a tag team in the Canadian independent circuit after completing their training with Ron Hutchinson. Their tag team wrestled under several names, such as "High Impact", "Suicide Blondes", "Revolution X", "Hard Impact" and "Canadian Rockers". They were part of a faction dubbed "Thug LiFe" in 1997. The stable consisted of Cage, Hardcastle, Joe E. Legend, Rhino Richards, Bloody Bill Skullion, Big Daddy Adams and Martin Kane. In 1998, Sexton and Christian began teaming up in independent promotions such as Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW) and Southern States Wrestling (SSW). The duo won the ICW Streetfight Tag Team Championship twice and SSW Tag Team Championship once during their time in the independent circuit. World Wrestling Federation (1998–2001) The Brood (1998) On the June 22, 1998 episode of Raw is War, "Edge" (Adam Copeland) debuted in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) against Jose Estrada, Jr.. He was a mysterious "loner" character, who would emerge from the crowd before his matches. Eventually, he started a feud with Gangrel. At In Your House: Breakdown, during a match pitting Edge against Owen Hart, an unknown person, looking similar to Edge, came out to the ring distracting him enough to allow Hart to get the win. It was later revealed that this person was "Christian", Edge's storyline brother, and he was aligned with Gangrel as his vampire follower. After some confrontations between the two brothers (both of whom appeared to be gothic and vampire-like), Edge was convinced to 'rejoin' with Christian and Gangrel, and the three of them formed a stable known as "The Brood" (the theory of Christianity word usage involvement in Copeland and Reso's WWE ring names is somewhat supported by the fact that both men had frequently worn cross necklaces on TV for some time since this beginning of their WWF careers). At In Your House: Rock Bottom, the Brood defeated J.O.B. Squad (Al Snow, Bob Holly and Scorpio). The Brood briefly joined The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness faction, but left after Christian was kayfabe thrown out of the group for revealing Stephanie McMahon's whereabouts to Ken Shamrock following an attack. Following a short feud with the Ministry, Gangrel turned on Edge and demanded that Christian do the same. He refused and both he and Edge broke with Gangrel turning them into fan favorites. From there, the gothic storyline enjoyed limited success, beginning their eventual tag team feud with The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy). At this point, the duo had rehashed Edge's pre-Brood gimmick as borderline gothic fan favorites most notable for a tendency to enter the ring through the audience. Terri Invitational Tournament (1999) The tag team feud with the The Hardy Boyz intensified as Gangrel became Matt and Jeff's new manager, combining to form "The New Brood", in the summer of 1999. However, both teams were more interested in acquiring the managerial services of Terri Runnels for which (along with $100,000) they would compete in a best-of-five series of matches known as the Terri Invitational Tournament. Edge and Christian won the first two matches, putting the Hardyz in sudden jeopardy. The Hardyz went on to win the next two matches, however, leading to a rubber match at No Mercy to determine which team would earn the services of Runnels. The rubber match would be a ladder match, in which Gangrel tried to interfere, only to get ejected. Matt and Jeff Hardy went on to win the match and the Terri Invitational Tournament. Comedic gimmick change and Tag Team Champions (2000) At this point, Gangrel was completely out of the picture, and the Hardyz inevitably turned face. So in order to keep up and continue their own progression as a tag team (as well as the feud in a natural course), Edge and Christian redefined themselves as a villainous duo of surfer/teen idols. The two engaged in various comedic antics including making fun of their opponents, using strange exclusive phrases (the most notable being "reek of awesomeness"), and dressing in outlandish costumes. Other trademarks of theirs included the "five-second pose" where, "for the benefit of those with flash photography", they would stand still in odd positions in the middle of the ring so fans could take pictures. These poses usually involved making fun of either their opponents or aspects of town pride (for instance, making fun of Elvis Presley during a show in Memphis, Tennessee or imitating Bill Buckner in the 1986 World Series at an event in Boston) to generate a negative reaction from the crowd. Edge and Christian were involved in several tag team matches with Hardy Boyz at Survivor Series and No Way Out. At WrestleMania 2000, they defeated the tag champs, Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) and Hardy Boyz in a Triangle ladder match for their first WWF Tag Team Championship. At Backlash, the duo retained their titles against D-Generation X (X-Pac and Road Dogg). They began a feud with Too Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty, Brian Christopher and Rikishi). On May 29, 2000 edition of Raw is War, they dropped the titles to Scotty and Christopher. At the King of the Ring pay-per-view, the duo defeated Too Cool, Hardy Boyz and T & A (Test and Albert) in a Four Corners elimination match to win their second WWF Tag Team Championship. At SummerSlam, they defended their titles successfully against Dudleyz and Hardyz in the first-ever Tables, Ladders and Chairs match (TLC match). Edge and Christian stated that instead of doing the "time-honored tradition" of shaking the hands of their opponents, they would instead do the time-honored tradition of mocking their opponents, and had four little people show up dressed as the Hardy Boyz and the Dudley Boyz, with toy ladders and tables, with a "37 second pose" when the fake Hardys and Dudleys bowed to Edge and Christian, who stood on the table. In addition, they also became known for using the "con-chair-to" (simultaneous chair shot). Los Conquistadores (2000) At one time, they and the Hardyz had a tag team championship exchange in 2000 involving the masks of "Los Conquistadores". This began after they lost the titles to Hardyz at Unforgiven, they had a final chance at the gold on the September 25 edition of Raw is War in a ladder match. They lost the match and now they could not get any chance at the gold (as long as the Hardyz were champions). They started competing under the masks of Los Conquistadores. On the October 16 edition of Raw Is War, they defeated Dudley Boyz, and on the October 19 edition of SmackDown!, they won a tag team battle royal to earn themselves a spot at the WWF Tag Team Championship. At WWE No Mercy, they got a title shot against Hardyz and they went on to win their third WWF Tag Team Championship. On the October 23 episode of Raw is War, Los Conquistadores were scheduled to defend the tag straps against Edge and Christian. Christian never made it to the ring, while Edge was worried. Los Conquistadores defeated Edge and Christian for the WWF Tag Team Championship. They ripped of the masks and revealed themselves as the Hardy Boyz. Edge and Christian surrendered the golden costumes of Los Conquistadores. Edge and Christian had wrestled with the costumes, and people had thought that the people behind the masks were Edge and Christian. They told the fans that they were not Los Conquistadores. In backstage segments, they congratulated Los Conquistadores. When Hardyz won the titles, however, they told that they had taken the masks and costumes from Edge and Christian's hired goons (Christopher Daniels and Aaron Aguilera were Los Conquistadores in backstage segments) in a backstage segment, thus ending the storyline of Los Conquistadores. Team RECK (2000–2001) They eventually started to team with Kurt Angle, forming "Team ECK", a group that was later joined by Rhyno when he came in from Extreme Championship Wrestling in early 2001 to make "Team RECK". Edge and Christian won their fourth WWF Tag Team Championship at Armageddon in a Four Corners match which included the champions, Right to Censor (Bull Buchanan and The Goodfather), Dudley Boyz and the makeshift team of Road Dogg and K-Kwik. Edge and Christian went on to win the match and their fourth WWF Tag Team Championship. A week later, they exchanged the WWF Tag Team Championship with The Undertaker and The Rock. At the Royal Rumble, they lost the titles to Dudleyz. They helped Hardyz defeat Dudleyz for the titles on March 5, 2001 edition of Raw is War and then two weeks later, they defeated Hardyz themselves for their sixth WWF Tag Team Championship after replacing Dudleyz because it was Dudleyz' shot. Later that night, they dropped the titles to Dudleyz. At WrestleMania X-Seven, they defeated the tag champs, Dudleyz and Hardyz in the second TLC match for their seventh and final WWF Tag Team Championship, but with help from their teammate Rhyno. On the April 19 episode of SmackDown!, they lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to Brothers of Destruction (Undertaker and Kane). Split and sporadic reunions Friction arose between the team (as well as the entire RECK faction) at King of the Ring when Edge won the 2001 King of the Ring tournament (all four members had made it to the semi finals). As a result, on the September 3 edition of Raw is War in their hometown of Toronto, Christian appeared to be jealous of his brother and insisted on carrying Edge's trophy to the ring. During the night, he assaulted Edge with a "one-man con-chair-to" and joined The Alliance. The former partners went on to feud over the WWF Intercontinental Championship for several months, causing the team to split. Edge and Christian had a one-night reunion at a SmackDown! live event on October 13, 2002 when they defeated Los Guerreros (Eddie and Chavo). They reunited again on November 15, 2004 edition of Raw but ended up losing to Chris Benoit and Shelton Benjamin. From there, they would become loosely united through Christian facing Edge's storyline rivals, leading to three more reunion tag team matches in 2005. These reunions, officially or otherwise, also included a brand new third party in the form of Christian's acting problem solver at the time, Tyson Tomko. Aftermath Christian left WWE on November 13, 2005. He debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) at its TNA Genesis pay-per-view under the ring name Christian Cage, which he used in Canadian independent circuit. Christian experienced immediate success in TNA, where he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship twice. Edge also achieved greater success in WWE since Christian's departure. He went on to win the first-ever Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 21 and cashed in his Money in the Bank contract at New Year's Revolution for his first of nine World Championship reigns. In 2009, Christian returned to WWE, and at Backlash, won the ECW Championship. Following his title win, and prior to Edge's ninth world title win that same night, the duo interacted on television for the first time since Christian's return. In 2010, Edge was drafted to Raw, and was confronted by Christian on his final night on Smackdown! He exposed Edge's true colors, resulting in Edge turning back heel after a short-lived face-run. They brawled until Edge decided to flee. In wrestling *'Double team maneuvers' **''Con–chair–to'' **Double flapjack **Double missile dropkick **Double spear **Sidewalk slam (Edge) / Falling reverse DDT (Christian) combo **Stack–superplex *'Signature foreign object' **Steel folding chair *'Managers' **Kurt Angle **Terri Runnels **Gangrel *'Theme music' **Blood" by James A. Johnston **You Think You Know Me" by James A. Johnston **On the Edge" by James A. Johnston **"Blood Brother" by James A. Johnston Championships and accomplishments *'Insane Championship Wrestling' **ICW Streetfight Tag Team Championship (2 times) *'New Tokyo Pro Wrestling' **NTPW Pro Tag Team Championship (1 time) *'Pro Wrestling Illustrated' **PWI Match of the Year (2000) vs. The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz in a Triangle Ladder match at WrestleMania 2000 **PWI Match of the Year (2001) vs. The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at WrestleMania X-Seven *'Southern States Wrestling' **SSW Tag Team Championship (1 time) *'World Wrestling Federation ' **WWF Intercontinental Championship (2 times) – Edge **WWF Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) – Christian **WWF Tag Team Championship (7 times) **King of the Ring (2001) – Edge *'List of Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards' **Tag Team of the Year (2000) See also *The Brood *Ministry of Darkness External links * Profile * Edge and Christian's Online World Wof Wrestling profile Category:World Wrestling Entertainment teams and stables Category:WWE World Tag Team Champions Category:Teams and stables